Digital pop art, patterns, stamps

Another batch of digital artwork made on Sketchbook app on my smartphone. This one is like the Rolling Stones go to the dentist. Say cheese.  

 

A pattern tool allows for textured wallpaper-like effects. It reminds me of an early drawing tool that I used on the original Macintosh computer back in the 80's, a friend of ours had one and I played around with it, first time using a mouse too. 

 

Purple haze on a tablet... in the central area I overlapped smooth and textured features, and figured out how to make small speckles. The frame and other elements are free-hand... or free-finger rather since these are all made with my indec finger. 

 

Initially made in colour, I changed it to black and white to emphasize the amazing textural variations. A stamping tool allows for the feathery-effects and paint splatters. Each feature tool can be customized to control size, density, randomization and even adjust how it looks with heavy or light press on the screen. 

 

More neon-effects done on a near-black background, its like an underwater deep-sea creature. I even signed on the bottom right with a violet neon pen tool. A dark-red thorny pattern was added in a single press using stamp tool. I kept redoing the thorn effect until it looked right. There is a handy undo feature which is obviously a big advantage to digital art. 

 

After establishing bright primary patterns in the background, I tried quite a few things until landing on dark blue pattern overlay. So there were no 'pen strokes' here, just multi-layered patterns, Bohemian-style. 

 

Digital art surrealism, abstract neon

Here are some more digital artworks made while travelling, using my smartphone with the Sketchbook app. This one was meant to evoke Maud Lewis, the late Canadian folk painter, and inspired by the tree-lined walkway in Winnipeg.  

 

In the background, I experimented with perspective... these features lock the drawing on a specified point perspective that can be set in various ways. It was tricky and needs more practice. Overlay created a music-feel to the artwork. 

 

Sitting on the airplane I made digital sketches including this pop-art inspired view in front of me. Keeping the top of the design cloudy gives a surrealistic feel. 

 

A party pinata exploding with confetti, candy and ribbons. By setting the background to cyan, it gave the scene a bright pop of colour. When painting (for real), this cyan colour is not possible, nor is the magenta. The closest paints are cyan green shade (PB16) and quin magenta (PR122). 

 

A hybrid of styles, its Piet Mondrian meets graffiti art. Piet Mondrian was a dutch artist known for grid-like compositions and primary colours. 

 

Discovering the neon-brush tools, this version of my initials is electric! It works best to set the background to near-black, then the neon lines pop off the screen. I also figured out how to add text, along with warping features. Sketchbook app is a lot more powerful than I originally thought, with many dozens of tools that can be customized, and that's just on the free version of the app! 

Flowers, path pylon, live band

Down next to the back patio at my Parent's house there are plenty of flowers growing including tulips, purple flowers, light blue flowers, and a few dandelions. Using lots of yellow (PY184) brightened up the scene. 

Flowers back patio, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

More wild flowers growing on the other side of the creek in the valley, but what caught my interest was a school of minnows darting under the clear water. Its good to see some nature returning to the creek like this, it was once a sterile rain ditch, over the years it eroded and meandered along until nature returned.  

Minnows in creek, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

An unlikely place to spot a pylon, on a path in the middle of a valley-forest. I was ready for it, having painted a lot of pylons in Montreal. This part of the path gets flooded regularly, so the city dropped it off to warn people. 

Pylon path forest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Some musician 'roadies' were unloading equipment for a live show up at the community center. They didn't seem to mind that I was painting a picture of them hard at work. We never did see the show, it seemed rather elaborate. 

Live band setup, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Looking up towards the radio relay tower and Bolton water tower behind the community center, reminded me of 1996 when Mom took me to an art show up here, and we tried to sell paintings. Although none were sold that day, I made a bunch of paintings on the day... a few can be seen in this blog. Since that was almost exactly 20 years ago, it was interesting to compare the experience. I recall the challenge of painting outdoors back then, compared to now with all the experience I amassed especially in the last six years. 

Bolton towers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Sunset Turcot Interchange: C'est vraiment Montréal!

It was a colourful sunset on the Turcot highway interchange, as seen from ville st Pierre. Starting with yellow, orange, magenta, and pale blue, I worked up dark browns and greys with variations on burnt yellow ochre (PR102) and indo blue (PB60). Accents of pylon-orange, green, pops of red, and dark sketch elements done in carbon black (PBk6) completed the scene. As I flicked the brush, little droplets accidentally hit the painting, reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, a late American painter who threw paint on the canvas quite intentionally. When painting something like this on location, you just have to be along for the ride, so to speak, and let your brush do all the work. Its a great spot to catch the sunset, albeit a little noisy and smelly, along with the massive construction project that is ongoing. I really liked painting a juxtaposition of bright pylon-orange against a pastel sunset. C'est vraiment Montréal!

Sunset Turcot Interchange, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2026

Sun down moon up, sky colours

Riding down to ville st Pierre with the sun going down and I found myself at one of the many elevated highway ramps, this one in the west direction. The elevated ramps often catch the sunset, and concrete happens to look pretty neat when its illuminated in orange or red-orange. I did a fantastic one last year of the sun setting on Turcot interchange in st Henri area. In this scene, I emphasized the convergening shapes of the ramp and the access road, and contrasted coral orange, purples, chartreuse, and the emerald green pops of car windshields and traffic signs. Cutting through the pastels are bright-red tail lights on passing cars, done with the excellent pyrol red paint (PR254). 

Sundown off ramp, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Here is a scene of one of the many factores-turned-condos along st Ambrose street. I am standing on the Lachine canal bike path looking across. Composing the moon low in the scene was an artistic license thing, in fact, the moon was hanging high today. With near-complete darkness and no artificial lights with me tonight, it was tricky to get all the colours right. Deep purple clouds were rolling in on the horizon. 

Crescent moon condo living, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

In among the soaring new condo towers downtown, there is a new dépanneur on Peel called dépanneur Peel, pretty original name eh? Again, I composed the moon low so as to include it in the scene, near a bright LED street lamp. I painted the yellows and oranges first, then over-painted with darker colours made mostly of burnt yellow ochre (PR102) mixed with carbon black (PBk6) or dark blue (PB60). When painting at night you have to hang in there because its hard to see the effect until the colour blocks are filled in, and only the white and yellow light sources remain. One of my favorite night paintings of the year is Night Goose. It has a lot of views already. I did another good painting of the Sunset over Turcot from st Pierre, I will post it separately. 

Dépanneur Peel crescent moon,  watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Thinking back on my paintings

With a holiday I did some spring cleaning and got into one of my boxes of paintings. It got me thinking back to my paintings from that era, in this example, its London Ontario early 2000's. I was sitting near the corner of Richmond and Dundas, back then I sat on a small camping chair to make paintings, looking to the east direction. It was an overwhelming scene but I gave it my best try, even getting the green light on the traffic lights, and a complicated sign with the word restaurant on it. Even today I would have trouble with such a scene! 

The other reason was to look at the back of my old paintings, as in, can I still paint on the backs of them? Basically every painting had an unused back, although they were mostly 5 x 7", so I went through and trimmer them down and got them ready for a second life. Before doing so, I pulled the good ones out, the memorable ones, and set those ones aside. So it looks like I'll be doing more 5 x 7" this summer. On my catalogue, grey font means I pulled it and painted on back, while strike-through font means I ripped the painting up and put in our composter. Fun fact, 100% rag watercolour paper composts quite well! 

Mallard sleeping, remains of Otter Lake

On the way back today, I stopped by the remains of Otter lake, also once called little Pierre Lake. When they built the Lachine Canal in the 1820's, this lake was drained and eventually turned into a mega highway going through Montreal. At one of the lowest points, adjacent to the canal, there is a drainage ditch which the city preserved and landscaped as part of the Turcot interchange project. Its main role is to prevent the nearby truck depot from flooding, but this Mallard duck was having a good nap in the shade. If you rode past this, it would just be a storm ditch, but knowing its history adds more meaning. I kind of wish the lake were still here, or I had had a chance to see it, but no drawings or paintings seems to remain, just a few ancient maps from the 18th century. 

Mallard sleeping Otter lake, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026